The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1887-04-02
INTERESTING VARIETY.

INTERESTING VARIETY.
A sAN1TAR1AN of Paris estimates that
there are 2, 500, 600 rats in that city.
The total consumption of coal oil in the
world is estimated at forty thousand bar
rels per day.
THERE are thousand and one different
remedies for bee-sting, none of which will
compare with little oil of cinnamon ap-
piled with small point to avoid blistering.
The first fort was built in Chicago in the
year 1904 and was called Fort Chicago. It
was destroyed by the Indians in 1912; in
1917 it was rebuilt and called Fort Dear
born.
THERE is but little diminution in the de-
mands of fashion for birds as ornaments
It seems the humane societies and their
multitudinous resolutions are powerless to
prevent this heartless sacrifice of innocent
bird-life.
A CHINESE scholar says: otis better to
be ignorant and know how to live than to
be learned and not know how to live The
prin cipal object of a school is to learn how
to live in tranquility and happiness and
nothing more.''
| A FAMOUS actress of this country is be-
set by lunatics One man has been writ
| ing her letters for ten years and although
the object of his attentions never replies,
he still writes regularly. He is thought to
be man of wealth and his letters are
dated from all parts of the world.
| THERE is singular winged insect IN the
hot, sandy countries of the Southwest that
is known as the tarantula-hawk. 1t is the
interchangeable enemy of the poisonous tar
| antula. Its mode of warfare is to surprise
its national enemy by swooping suddenly
down, and depositing in it's body the egg,
which, remaining thus i'm bedded, develops
and kills the taran lula in its growth.
THE true American idea is thus portrayed
| by an American writer after ten years.
absence in Great Britain: ''The American
looks about him and sees what he himself
has done and what his country has be-
come, and he hears from every European
and reads in every European journal that
| the United States must be reckoned among
the great Powers of the world This last
acknowledgment he accepts once for all,
and he says to himself that henceforward
what concerns him is American judgment
upon things American, and that only. He
has no need to appeal to foreign tri-
bunal.
A VERY probable though extraordinary
story is told in the San Francisco Chronicle
of an occurrence of the days when railroads
were new and greenbacks were scarce. A
man going East wanted exchange on New
York for twenty-five thousand dollars in
greenbacks, as he was afraid of being
robbed if he carried it with him. A banker
obliged him by charging him two hundred
and fifty dollars commission and letting
him (unconsciously) carry the amount in a
neat package in his sachel to brother
banker in New York, who, upon presenta-
ton Of his draft, opened the package con-
signed to him and turned over the green
backs to the dumbfounded bearer of the
draft.
The most fashionable dancing class in
Philadelphia, the one to which all the in
FAINT swells belong previous to being
launched as ssbuds,' always ends the even
ing with what is called ssthe last waltz in
the dark" The gas is turned off, with the
exception of one or two lights in one of the
chandeliers when these innocents take
their final spin down the darkened hall.
Boston propriety is much shocked, says
the Herald, by this free and easy proceed
ing and simply considers that Philadelphia
society must have taken leave of its senses
to permit this horribly "American" free
dom. What would French or English
mothers say to it2 What would the new
regime in New York say2 Dear. dear!
A LOBSTER fisherman writing IN the
Portland Argus says: IA lobster carries
about twenty thousand eggs at once. If
we had thrown one-half the catch of small
Holsters that were canned last season in
Maine, viz, five million, back into the sea,
and when left to grow and spawn, if we
got one for each thousand eggs we would
get one hundred million from a single
Matching, or twenty-five million a year for
four years. Then we should not have to
depend on the untold millions we do not
catch for supply. We are now catching
Holsters in the open sea, in waters over
law says it is crime to have them in
Maine unless they are ten and one-half
inches long, and we are compelled to
throw them away when they are much
wanted and would sell at high prices"
some years ago quondam brigand chief
was raised to the Presidency of Bolivia
beard, on which he never bestowed the
slightest pains. On the day of mis- cleo
ton he had to attend mass in obedience to
the usual custom, and barber was called
in to comb and dress the matted beard of
his excellency. When the tedious and
painful operation was over, an official
came in to inform his excellency that there
was criminal sentenced to death and
awaiting execution, but that it was GUS
tomary for newly-elected President to
commute the sentence into lighter one.
''Well, what other punishment am to
give him9'' inquired the President, still
smarting from the recent operation.
whichever your excellency may please. {"
''Then let him have his hair combed, and
have done with itl' was the reply.
On pedestal near the gate of the Gin
cinnati geological gardens there recently
stood the stuffed figure of a donkey which,
when alive, withstood the attack of lion
and beat him off. The lion, it seems, had
broken out of his cage and escaped to a
wood near by. On grassy hillock adj
joining, donkey lay stretched in placid
slumber-a slumber that was rudely dis
turbed by the lion, who, in few bounds, was
upon him. When the donkey felt the great
mass of flesh descend upon him as if from the
clouds, he was stunned and indignant, but
F.: no ho1